Posted on 01/16/2022 3:28:01 AM PST by Kaslin
The power of government rests on ignorance of the people, and it knows this, and therefore will always resist enlightenment.
Leo Tolstoy
Every nation has its fair share of people with no useful abilities, yet harboring considerable ambition and an insurmountable craving for la dolce vita. The longing is there, but with no means for its realization. So, what they to do? Sooner or later the mediocre find a workable solution: they go into politics.
A sufficiently high position in a government structure that doesn’t require any special abilities or talents gives an nearly assured opportunity to receive lucrative benefits, including money, respect, and influence. There is a famous saying: "Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” There is a corollary: Those who can’t teach, govern.
This is how the selection process works: mediocrities float to the top. Thus, government agencies accumulate a number of bureaucratic politicians for whom the main goal in life is to hold on to their positions and, if possible, move up the career ladder. The good of the country and its people becomes secondary and intrusive. Many professional bureaucrats possess just one talent: seizing and holding onto power.
Until recently, leaders of many countries had clear understanding that the intellectual potential of a society can be of exceptional value to the state and for the preservation their own power. Even such bloody dictators as Stalin and Hitler allowed a certain degree of free-thinking and independence of ideas in scientific and technical academia. They were well aware that a quality education and existence of an intellectual elite were among the cornerstones of the foundation of their power.
This understanding seems to have been lost in America.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.” ~ George Orwell
“ Sooner or later the mediocre find a workable solution: they go into politics.”
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Or, become teachers/professors.
How’s it go? “Those that can - do. Those who can’t do - teach”.
If those in power were mediocre, they might be tolerable. Unfortunately, they are far below mediocre - they are incompetent, feckless, amoral and criminal.
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